Winter's Breath [Attn: Cat] COMPLETE

[Jenny]

<< The First Snow Kaira

Kaira examined her reflection in the mirror above the dresser. The snow had been shaken off her fur cloak. Her boots remained warm and dry, but her trousers were hopelessly wet and stuck to her legs. She shivered, then touched her neck. The white ribbon had loosened.

She glanced over her shoulder at Johan. When she saw that his attention was elsewhere, she hastily unfurled the ribbon and revealed an ugly, red, puckered scar, a handbreadth in length, that wrapped horizontally across the base of her neck. She re-tied the ribbon to fit snugly over the scar. After one last look into the mirror, she turned around.

“Ready?” she asked.

They left the room. A long hallway stretched on both sides. Kaira listened for voices, but heard nothing. Where was everyone? Goosebumps trailed their way up her arm.

“It’s too quiet,” she said. Her whisper carried and echoed down the hall. It’s too quiet. Too quiet. Quiet.

In the middle of the hallway, they found a door marked with the jagged symbol of a staircase. Kaira put her palm against the wood and pushed. It opened with a slow creak. She looked down into the darkness. This should have been the way down into the main room of the inn, where hot food and friendly faces awaited. But these stairs were dark, and she saw no light from a warm, flickering fire. She heard no music resounding from a gleeman’s harp. She placed a hand on Johan’s arm.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” she said.

Spoiler: show

(OOC: Feel free to have him see the scar! She might care, but I don't.)

[Cat]

Johan

He’d chosen not to reply to the comment about having someone like him watching her back, and had simply picked himself up off the floor, brushed the snow off, and taken a few moments to gather himself. He’d see her back to the Tower, sure, but that was it; with her aunt and her father being who they were, he couldn’t exactly turn up and say that he’d lost her, could he? Not if he wanted to stay at the Tower and, much more importantly, keep his life. There was nothing else he could do but watch her back, but he most definitely wasn’t going to make a habit of it. Not now, not ever. He was all too aware of where that would probably lead, and he had no intention of ever letting himself be bonded. By anyone.

His scarf was back to covering his mouth and nose, and his hood was pulled up. He didn’t want anyone to be able to identify him. Just in case. Breaking and entering, even if to escape a storm, was generally regarded as something you weren’t supposed to do. It was a first class ticket to getting himself kicked out of the Tower, and he wasn’t going to let that happen. Not yet, at least, not when he still had a lot more stuff to still learn. Truth be told, if he had had his way they would have stayed in the room, weathered out the storm, and then gone back out through the window the way they’d come.

But that hadn’t happened.

Johan moved as silently as he could, trying to make as little noise as possible, shifting his weight from heel to toe, heel to toe as he placed one foot carefully in front of the other. He stuck close to the walls, and he found himself wishing that he was armed. He didn’t even have his duelling knife. He’d left that back in Ebou Dar as a promise that he would most definitely be back, and he had dropped Kaira's knife in the climb. He'd have to go back and get it once they left the inn, though not before hoping to the Creator that it was still there. For now, he would just have to hope that, whatever happened, he could land the first punch. Somehow, he didn’t think it was going to be a case of simply waltzing out and skipping back through the snow.

Something did indeed not feel right, but rather than answer or agree, or even step forward and start down the stairs, he glanced back at Kaira, his eyes flicking briefly to the hand on his arm before they moved up to meet her eyes.

“How’d you get the scar?”

He’d seen it when she clearly hadn’t thought he’d been paying attention, and he wanted to know.

[Jenny]

Kaira

Kaira tensed. She looked at him, startled, and was surprised when she found him staring right back at her with his eyebrows drawn above his eyes. He had intense eyes, dark and brooding and unreadable, with a hardness to his gaze that spoke of hard times in the past. She found herself wondering about him, too. How had he learned to climb like that? It did not seem to be something that a Drin would learn in the Warder Yards. But one did not simply go around asking these questions! At least not in public, and certainly not when they barely knew each other.

She touched her neck, making sure that the ribbon still hid the scar from view. It has been just over a year, she realized. Over a year since she had stood in that dark basement in Caemlyn where her friend - or so she thought - had taken her father's blade and very deliberately opened up her throat.

Kaira shuddered at the memory. The resulting wound had taken weeks to heal, but the wound to the young woman's pride and vanity still throbbed and bled, as sharp and hard and jabbing as it had been when it was fresh. She grimaced. Her body curled into itself in defense while her chin lifted in defiance.

"Is that really what you're worried about right now?" she said, scathingly.

Then she turned back to the dark stairwell and stormed down the stairs.

[Cat]

Johan

No, it wasn’t what was worrying him right now. Oh, there were a hundred things worrying him presently, none of which he really wanted to think about, and most were not related to the inn they were currently in, but the scar on her neck wasn’t one of them. It was curiosity that had made him ask. Things like that didn’t just appear; there was always a reason behind them, and, besides, he often found it easier to think about something that wasn’t going on right now. It was better not to think about what the reason for the inn being so silent might be. It was better to speak about that rather than the fact that no one had yet come to see what was going on when they should have, which was very, very wrong.

And he didn’t know her. He had absolutely no idea who she was with beyond the fact that she was the niece of an Aes Sedai, and the daughter of the Gaidin Captain. She could be stark raving mad for all he knew, and getting ready to murder him. Again, you simply didn’t end up with things like that around your neck for no reason. What reason was there not to ask or pretend that he hadn’t seen?

He didn’t say anything, though, gave no voice to his thoughts, but simply followed her down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time and giving up on any attempt to be quiet. There was no point now. Thump, thump, THUMP. He jumped the last three steps.

If she didn’t want to talk about it, that was fine with him.

“Hello!” he called instead, making his way into the common room. “Anyone here? We broke into your inn! Haven’t stolen anything yet, though! Hello?”

[Jenny]

Kaira

She peered behind her at the noise with amusement. Funny that he had stepped so quietly in the hallway upstairs, and then immediately strived to create as much noise as possible. She peered around the room. A hazy, grey light filtered into the rooms from the snow-filled windows. The common area was just as still and devoid of people as the upstairs. Kaira walked towards the swinging double doors into the kitchen.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked over her shoulder. "I don't plan on stealing anything. It doesn't seem like anyone is here. Let's wait out the storm. Brr it is cold! Could you start a fire, please? I'll look in the kitchens for some food."

She reached into her belt pouch and took out a small purse. The coins inside clinked.

"See? No stealing." Carefully she counted out four silver coins and placed it on a nearby table. "There, that should be enough," she said with satisfaction. Most novices did not have coin, but sometimes there were benefits to being the Gaidin Captain's daughter.

Kaira went into the kitchens. She rinsed her hands with a bit of clear water from a bucket and then found a kitchen knife. She hefted it in her hand and reached for a loaf of bread from the shelves by the oven. As she sliced, she frowned at the flakes that came off the bread. Oddly, it seemed a little dry and stale. She wrinkled her nose. But it was not so old that it was inedible. From the pantry, she took a small round of cheese and some salted ham and began to cut neat circles. A few minutes later, she had a nice platter of sliced bread, meat and cheese. She smiled at the display. Even if the innkeeper seemed to be away, things were surely looking up for them!

She returned to the common room with the platter in her hands, and then stopped by the swinging doors. Johan was there, by the fire, but something seemed... odd. She tilted her head to the side.

"What are you looking at, Johan?"

[Cat]

Johan

Johan could have argued, said that it would probably be quicker for her to light the fire because she could, you know, channel, but he stamped down on the urge. It would give him a chance to survey their surroundings. He didn’t want to admit how unsettling he found the quietness. No matter where you were, inns were usually a hub of activity, vibrancy and life. Being in one so still and cold was unnatural. There had to be a why.

Pushing down the hood of his cloak but not removing the scarf, he took a step towards the fire and stumbled, almost tripping. His head spun ever so slightly as he righted himself, and he frowned, glancing down at the floor. Clearly the floorboards were uneven. He hadn’t been to Hama Valon that often, so perhaps they’d walked into the one and only closed inn. Maybe it had been closed for years and that was why it was so cold and empty. He was sure he could see cobwebs hanging down from the ceilings. Those should have been swept and dusted away every day. No one liked an unclean inn.

He turned his gaze away, focusing straight ahead. Apparently looking up or looking down were making him even more dizzy. He wondered just how old the inn was. There were places in Ebou Dar where even the walls and stairs weren’t straight, and where they were far more crooked than not. That had to be it; the inn was old, and his sudden stomach-twisting nausea was down to that and the fact that he hadn’t eaten since leaving the Tower that morning. He was used to going most of the day without food, but maybe regular meal at the Tower had changed that.

He finally reached the fireplace, and again he frowned, pausing. He looked back behind him, back to where Kaira had disappeared through the kitchen door, and then back at the fireplace. He couldn’t remember why he was here again. What was he supposed to be doing-? The frown deepened. There was days old ash in the fireplace that hadn’t been swept up. It looked like it hadn’t been lit for quite some ti-

Light the fire! That was what he was supposed to be doing. But he needed… He needed… He need… He reached out and grabbed the mantelpiece as the room spun again. Where his eyes blurring? He felt like he was suddenly trying to wade through sludge, and he didn’t know why. He couldn’t get his thoughts together enough. He couldn’t think clearly. He was supposed to light the fire, yes, but how-? And what was the point when they were going to be going soon enough. They had to get back to the Tower for curfew. He was pretty sure it had been hours since he’d left.

He heard a voice, then, and the world tilted again as he turned to see who it was. He had to swallow against the wave of sudden sickness. The world was still tilting, up and up and up. His vision blurred more. He was definitely going to be sick. His ears started ringing.

And then he collapsed, legs buckling, unconscious before he even hit the floor.

[Jenny]

Kaira

CRASH!

The platter dropped. The little round circles of meat and cheese and carefully sliced pieces of bread spilled across the floor. Kaira jumped over the mess and dashed to the side of the Drin. Was he breathing? Yes. Did he have a pulse? Yes. Was he bleeding? No.

"Hey! Johan! Are you... "

Her voice faded as her gaze suddenly snapped up. She scanned the common room. Long rectangular tables scattered seemingly at random throughout the room. Chairs stacked neatly against one wall. A bar and barstools. A few felted tables for playing dice. She saw nothing that seemed dangerous.

What had happened in this inn?

And abruptly her head began to spin and her thoughts flew to that day when some of the learning ranks had gathered around a bonfire in the gardens and told each other stories of ghosts and spirits and death. No! She wouldn't think about that. Those were just tales told to pass the time and they were certainly not true! She turned her attention back to Johan and noticed how his scarf covered his mouth and nose.

She pulled it down to his neck and gasped. His cheeks were flushed and pink and blotchy. And with a strange feeling, she remembered where she had seen this before.
----- In Stefan’s little apothecary shop, many things quickly became routine. His business thrived on pain, fever, cough, insomnia, contraception and impotence. Kaira quickly learned how to manage most of the customers that showed up at the front desk. But sometimes the customer would ask for something unusual, leaving Kaira to excuse herself and seek out her employer. Today was one such case. She found Stefan in the back room taking inventory of the various powders and potions that lined the shelves. Carefully, she recited what the customer had told her. Headaches. Dizziness. Nausea. Breathlessness.

“Let me take a look at him,” said Stefan.

They went to the front, where the gentleman waited. He had long, scraggly brown hair, streaked with grey, and a weather-worn face. The wear on his clothing showed that he had clearly fallen on hard times. Most remarkable, however, were his cheeks, red and flushed. Stefan took one look and nodded.

"Bad air,” he said. "It happens often in the wintertime. You need to hire a chimney sweep."
----- Kaira ran for a window and flung it open. Air and snow drifted inside, but Kaira did not care. She took a deep breath of the fresh air. Then she went to the front door, unbolted the lock, and threw that open too. A great gust of wind swept into the inn. She glanced back at Johan and then shivered in the cold. But she did not dare to light a fire. After a moment's thought, she went upstairs. She walked into the first room at the top of the stairs and paused by the bed. There was a lumpy figure...

She would not have pulled back the blankets, but for her morbid curiosity and a desire to wipe all doubt from her mind. What if the person had been merely sleeping? Her hand moved as of its own volition. At the sight of the thing under the sheets, her stomach did a squeezing flip. She backed away and fled.

[Cat]

Johan

Consciousness was slow in returning.

He came back to himself, almost, in stages, awareness of his body the first to come creeping back. His muscles ached, his arms and legs feeling as if someone had attached leaden weights to them, and it felt as if that someone had then gone and locked a metal band around his chest. It hurt to breathe; felt like he was trying to breathe through water, like he couldn’t pull in a full breath. Even with his eyes closed, Johan could feel himself spinning. Around and around and around. The nausea returned, and he bolted upright, then, eyes finally opening, just in time to lean to the side and empty the contents of his stomach until all that remained were dry heaves.

It felt as if someone had stolen all his energy, and he flopped back, still trying just to breathe. His head pounded. His head more than pounded. It felt as if someone was striking a hammer against the inside of his skull, and he groaned, throwing a hand over his eyes, trying to block out the light. His skin felt hot and flush, and his hair, damp with sweat, clung to the back of his neck.

He tried to gather his thoughts, to figure out what was going on, but he could think of nothing at first. It was like trying to wade his way through mud. He’d been… He’d… He could recall snow. It had suddenly started falling, and then… and then… He could remember running through it, a building, a window. There’d been a fire. He was supposed to have lit a fire, and then… then there was nothing. He couldn’t even remember falling.

Panic was the emotion that followed, then, and he scrambled to his feet, almost immediately toppling over again. He grabbed a chair to keep himself upright.

His eyes were wide, his breathing fast as he sought out Kaira.

“Where… What… What happened?”

[Jenny]

Kaira

She returned to the room that she and Johan had entered and gathered the blankets from the unoccupied bed. Then she went back downstairs, just in time to see Johan emptying his stomach on the floor. Quickly, she ran over, draped a blanket around him, slung his arm across her shoulders, and helped him walk into the kitchens.

"We're still in Hama Valon," Kaira said. "I think there was something bad in the air and opened the windows and door. Are you alright? Light, I'm glad you woke up! Here, let's get something to settle your stomach."

She sat him down on a stool in the kitchens and brought him bread and ale. With a woolen blue blanket hanging around her shoulders, she perched herself on another stool and ate her own piece of bread. Her brows furrowed with worry, and her eyes tracked his every movement.

"We should get back to the Tower as soon as this storm stops. You need to be seen by a Yellow sister," she said.

[Cat]

Johan

The dizziness and nausea had yet to fade, and all Johan wanted to do was curl up in a ball, close his eyes, and go to sleep. It was all too tempting. He was suddenly tired, more than, and his head was still pounding.

He pulled the blanket closer around him, trying to keep the cold out. When had it got so cold? It was like someone had opened all the doors and windows. He vaguely recalled Kaira mentioning something about it, but his mind was still muggy, and he was amazed that he could even string two sentences together.

The food remained untouched. The idea of eating made his stomach do somersaults. He wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t want to throw up again, which he knew would be the inevitable result; he had and his stomach hadn’t been trained for acrobatics. He took a sip of ale and then leaned back, close enough to the wall that he could rest against it. His eyes started to slide slowly closed.

And then he was suddenly blinking, fully alert, eyes back to being far too wide, breathing too quick. The vice clamped around his chest again, and the blanket slipped away as he pushed himself forward.

“No!” he said a little too emphatically, the word leaping out before he could stop it, the idea of an Aes Sedai touching him with the Power not something he even wanted to contemplate. “I mean…” The sudden red on his cheeks was obvious, even though they were still a little a flushed and already redder than they were supposed to be. “I’ll be fine. I just need to rest, and then I’ll be fine. I don’t need a Yellow sister. Besides,” and he glanced towards the common room door. “We need to find the innkeeper. Tell him that something is wrong with the air. He could risk his guests…But I’ll… I’ll be fine.”

As if to prove his point, Johan pushed himself to his feet, where he wobbled a little but managed to stay upright. He gave something of a triumphant grin. See! He was fine!